After Zhu Chenjie and Dai Weijun, the two U23 international players, joined the U23 national football team to prepare for the battle, Zhang Yuning, Wu Xi and Zhang Linpeng, three core players of the national football team are also expected to join the U23 national football team across the age, to help the team to fight for the upcoming Hangzhou Asian Games soccer tournament to be held in September this year. It is reported that these three players may join the U23 national football team as early as April 20, and have integrated training with the team.
The East Asian Football Confederation (EAFC), the Japan Football Association (JFA) and the Chinese Football Association (CFA) released the schedule and venues for the 2022 East Asian Football Championship (commonly known as the East Asian Cup) on April 19 through official channels. Despite the impact of the epidemic, which prevented the CFA from hosting the tournament as originally planned, resulting in the tournament being moved to Japan, the association has decided to send both men's and women's teams to the tournament, with the men's soccer team to be made up of the 1999 age-group U23 national football team, the same men's team that played in this year's Asian Games in Hangzhou.
After China's men's football team failed to advance to the final round of the Qatar World Cup, the U23 national football team's participation in the Hangzhou Asian Games has become the most important challenge for this year's national men's soccer team. The CFA also followed the specifications of supporting the men's football team to attack the Qatar World Cup to ensure the preparation of the U23 national football team for the Asian Games. Among them, the integration of quality human resources is one of the important initiatives to support the U23 national football team.
In fact, in mid-March before the national football team, U23 national football team from Haikou to West Asia, has been selected into the national football training squad Wu Shaochong, Jiang Shenglong two U23 age players have joined the U23 national football team in advance of the preparatory team, and with the team to participate in the Dubai Cup Invitational Tournament. After the two national teams returned to China at the beginning of April, the other two U23 players of age, Dai Weijun and Zhu Chenjie, also quickly joined the preparation camp of the U23 national football team.
The registration rules for the men's football competition at the Asian Games show that the teams should be in the U23 age group, which means that in addition to a maximum of three over-age players, the remaining 20 registered players for each team must all be born after January 1, 1999. So, as the host team, will our U23 team draft overage players to participate?
At present, from the information revealed by various channels, the U23 national football team hopes to achieve excellent results in the Hangzhou Asian Games, in order to boost the morale of Chinese soccer in the doldrums, so the demand for the ability and will quality of the overage players is very clear. In this case, the coaching staff of the U23 national football team plans to "borrow" three main players from the National Football League, respectively, to fill the vacancies in the striker, midfield and the back line.
It is understood that the three "overage players" will join the U23 national football training camp on April 20 at the earliest, and the young players to familiarize themselves with each other, grinding. Of course, whether they can eventually participate in the Hangzhou Asian Games, but also according to the physical condition and other objective factors. After lifting the closed quarantine in Haikou City on the 24th of this month, the players of the two national teams will return to their respective clubs and take part in the first stage of the Chinese Super League. There is no definite news on whether they will participate in the East Asian Cup.
At present, the CFA and the preparatory group of the CFA are also communicating with all parties, including clubs, about the league and U23 national football team's preparations, competition schedules and other matters. This shows that the CFA has given strong support to the U23 national football team's preparation for the Hangzhou Asian Games.
